Baked falafel is tucked into a fresh collard wrap with a lemony tahini coleslaw. It’s a vegan and vegetable-packed take on my favorite Israeli fast food!
The first time I had falafel in collard wraps was in New York City, from an awesome raw food restaurant. They had somehow dehydrated the falafel into deliciousness (I know, sounds impossible), wrapped it all up in a collard and I bought it for $15. It was at that moment when I was like “I could absolutely make this at home”. I love getting inspiration from restaurants and recreating the recipes to your liking in your own kitchen. There are some things that I get in a restaurant that I feel like I’ll never be able to make on my own - sushi, for one. But maybe I’ll just add that to the list of cooking resolutions for the next year! This recipe uses my falafel recipe from Tuesday’s post, which is super easy and I akin it to making cookies.
Falafel has definitely become synonymous with late night fried foods - when I studied abroad in Paris my junior year of college, we would hit up the kebab stands at 3am and they would give us pita pockets filled with falafel AND french fries. As if the fried food needed to be accompanied by more fried food. But the great thing about falafel is that baked falafel is pretty much just as good as it’s fried friend. You can still make it crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. And when you wrap it in a collard green with cucumbers and a coleslaw that consists of more crunchy greens and a lemony tahini sauce, it is vegan heaven. There’s something about a collard green that is an awesome substitute for a wrap. It’s chewy and pliable and has great texture. It also doesn’t fall apart in your hands, and simulates the whole eating a wrap experience really well.
The dressing for the coleslaw is the same recipe as my Mediterranean Salad, but I swapped the olive oil for warm water. And another time when we ate these wraps, I added avocado for some additional healthy fats and texture. I’ve been really excited to share this recipe with you all week. I even served this to Nate (plus lots of roasted vegetables) and I think he enjoyed this non-meat feast! This was easy enough to whip up on a weeknight, especially with the falafel already pre-made. Happy vegan dinnering, y’all!
- 16 baked falafel patties (my recipe linked above)
- 4 large collard leaves
- 3 cups shredded green cabbage
- 1 cucumber, sliced
- 3 tbsp tahini
- 1 tbsp warm water
- Juice of one lemon
- In a small bowl, whisk the tahini, warm water, and lemon juice until well combined. Add in the cabbage and toss
- Take your collard leaves and chop off the stem until it reaches the leaf, and then flip the collard over to trim the rib to make it more pliable. This is easy with a vegetable peeler, but you can easily use a knife. Peel away thin pieces of the rib without breaking the leaf
- On a leaf, place 4 falafel patties. Top with a couple of slices of cucumber and several spoonfuls of the slaw
- Roll the collard greens like a burrito, and then cut in half with a knife
- Serve, or poke a toothpick through and pack in a tupperware for lunch!
If you like this, you’ll love: Swiss Chard Tuna Wraps
Thanks for stopping by! 
